The government’s Solar Sharer Offer will make free electricity available for three or more hours around midday.
I’ve heard this called a dumb policy that won’t lower costs because it will just shift them around, causing people to pay more at other times and in other ways to make up for what they get for free. But this isn’t true!
By that I mean, it’s not true that it won’t lower costs. It will make electricity less expensive than it otherwise would be for everyone. But the cost shifting stuff? Yeah, that is going to happen, but it doesn’t really matter. No one will have to use these plans unless they want to.
The Solar Sharer Offer In A Nutshell
The Solar Sharer Offer scheme will require electricity retailers to offer residential plans with 3 or more hours of free daytime electricity. It’s set to begin July 1st, 2026, in NSW, SE QLD, and SA. However, its details aren’t finalised, as the federal government is undertaking consultation on how it should work. Here’s the information they’ve provided so far.
While these free midday electricity plans are definitely likely to include higher rates at other times and/or higher supply charges compared to plans without free electricity periods, they should still be worthwhile for a wide range of households and will help lower the cost of electricity for everyone — including renters and others who may be unable to install solar and/or batteries. This includes those not using the free electricity plans.
The Solar Sharer Offer will lower electricity costs in two main ways:
- It will shift demand to the middle of the day. This will lower generation costs and dramatically reduce the curtailment of renewable generation currently causing large amounts of clean energy to effectively go to waste.
- It will lower peak demand, which will avoid or reduce the need for expensive grid upgrades.
The first effect will help lower costs as soon as people start using the plans, while the second will be of most benefit over the medium to long term.
Solar’s Not Stopping
Over the past year, 20.2% of Australia’s electricity came from the sun, with 13.6% from rooftops and solar farms supplying another 7.5%. For the states that will be getting plans with free daytime electricity in July, the percentages are:
- NSW: Rooftops 12.2% + solar farms 10.5% = 22.7%
- SA: Rooftops 22% + solar farms 5.8% = 27.8%
- QLD: Rooftops 13.9% + solar farms 9.6% = 23.5%
Solar’s growth has been rapid. In 2014 not a single state was even 1% solar powered but now the sun is Australia’s second largest electricity source after coal. The rate solar capacity is being added hasn’t slowed. In QLD and SA it has more than doubled over the past 5 years, while in NSW it has more than tripled. The country has over 42 gigawatts of solar panels and will add around 6 more gigawatts over the next year, with most of it going on roofs. Before long, it will be our largest single source of electricity.
Shifting Consumption To Free Periods
Just in case its name hadn’t clued you in, I’ll let you know solar generation occurs during the day, with the bulk of it in a couple of hours on either side of noon. Now you might think all this solar power has to go somewhere. But, unfortunately, it often doesn’t. On clear days, it’s common for solar energy to be wasted. Its output is curtailed, which means it’s deliberately reduced. This happens to wind power as well, but it happens the most to solar farms, with an example given in the graph below.
This graph from Open Electricity shows the dark yellow of solar farms providing power during the morning in South Australia, but then it almost disappears from 11:30 am to 3:00 pm as it’s curtailed.
Free electricity in the middle of the day will dramatically reduce the curtailment of clean energy because people will take advantage of it by:
- Putting electric hot water systems on timers so they turn on during free periods
- Running appliances such as pool pumps, dishwashers, and clothes dryers
- Heating or cooling homes
- Charging electric vehicles
- Charging home batteries
Reducing electricity demand during the rest of the day and shifting it to the free periods helps soak up any surplus solar, as well as surplus wind generation, that otherwise would have been curtailed.
This will immediately lower average generation costs, because curtailed energy is basically free. It will also reduce the amount of more expensive electricity consumed in the evening and other times. This will lower costs for everyone, whether or not they use a plan with free electricity periods or have solar or a battery.
Because home batteries will also be charged during free periods, this will improve their ability to reduce electricity demand during the evening peak and into the next morning, and this will also help lower average generation costs. Batteries will eliminate the need for gas generation on most days and because natural gas is expensive, this will also help lower prices.
Replacing gas hot water with a heat pump that can be configured to use electricity during the middle of the day is one way to make the most of the Solar Sharer plan.
Grid Capacity
The grid only has a limited amount of capacity. Simply put, this is the grid’s ability to supply power when and where it’s needed. If the peak demand for electricity exceeds the grid’s capacity to supply it, blackouts occur. These really annoy people and are bad for the economy, so both grid operators and politicians are desperate to avoid them. Things with the potential to increase peak demand include:
- Home electrification and getting off gas
- The switch to EVs
- Population growth
- Increasing wealth, resulting in higher energy consumption
Expanding grid capacity is really expensive. I don’t mean it’s a bit pricey, I mean the cost of grid infrastructure upgrades these days are nuttier than a lumpy chocolate bar. But once the capacity is built, it’s cheap to use. If we ignore the generation side of things and only consider getting power to people, then as long as its limit isn’t approached, running the grid costs the same whether it’s used at 90% or 10% of capacity. So anything that consistently reduces peak electricity demand and shifts it to a time when the grid isn’t under stress has the potential to avoid massively expensive grid upgrades.
Thanks to more than 4 million rooftop solar systems installed across the country, grid capacity never comes close to its limit around midday. Even on the cloudiest of days, rooftop solar produces enough power to take a load off transmission lines and substations by generating electricity in the same place it’s used. The periods when grid capacity is under the most strain are in the late afternoon and early evening during summer heatwaves, and around breakfast time in spells of exceptionally cold winter weather.
By shifting demand away from these times, free middle-of-the-day electricity reduces peak demand and the need to spend money upgrading the grid.
Better Use Of Home Batteries
The federal battery rebate was introduced on July 1st this year, and since then, home batteries have been selling like hotcakes. (Or in the case of Sigenergy systems, too hot cakes.) Over 100,000 systems, with around 2 gigawatt-hours of capacity, were installed over the past four months.
The massive amount of battery storage being installed will cause a large decrease in peak demand. But the scheme has a problem. At the moment, a lot of the installed battery capacity isn’t nearly as effective at reducing peak demand as it could be.
The issue is, during a summer heatwave or winter cold spell, most home batteries will do a great job of reducing peak demand — on the first day. But after that, a portion of home batteries will simply run out of energy. Many battery households have solar systems with 6.6 kilowatts of capacity or less. If these homes have ducted air conditioning or multiple split systems, then they may struggle to charge their batteries on days of extreme heat. Because home batteries rarely start the day completely drained in summer, they’ll often power the home through the evening peak on the first day of a heatwave, but may go flat before that on the second day.
Homes with large solar systems normally have no trouble keeping a battery charged through heatwaves, but even large solar systems may struggle in winter cold spells when days are short and there can be continuous heavy cloud cover.
If a portion of home batteries all conk out at around the same time during periods of lousy weather, they won’t consistently reduce peak demand and this means those batteries won’t help reduce the need for expensive grid capacity upgrades. It doesn’t matter if it only happens once a year or once every several years, it still means they can’t be relied on to always reduce peak demand.
But periods of free midday electricity solve this problem. It provides a strong incentive to charge batteries every day, so they’ll enter every peak period fully charged or close to it. This will allow home batteries that otherwise could not be counted on to consistently lower peak demand, making the federal battery rebate and the Solar Saver Offer complementary schemes.
Free Electricity Won’t Be All Solar
In summer, there will often be enough solar generation to meet the increase in electricity consumption during free electricity periods. But at times, especially on cold and cloudy winter days, meeting electricity demand will require water in hydroelectric dams to be run down, gas to be burned, and coal generators to increase output. But this is okay. Plenty of clean energy that otherwise would have been curtailed will be used instead of going to waste, and it will reduce the need for fossil fuel generation at other times. The total amount of fossil fuels used will also rapidly decline as we build more solar, wind, and battery capacity.
Savings For Everyone – But Some Everyones More Than Other Everyones
The Solar Sharer Offer is not going to be a dream scheme where you get 3 hours of free electricity tacked onto your plan with no drawbacks. Despite this, free midday electricity plans will still be worthwhile for a huge range of households. The greatest benefits will go to those with batteries and/or EVs, and those who put their electric hot water systems on timers. But by lowering generation costs and reducing the need for grid upgrades, they will lower costs for everyone, including those who don’t use the plans. This includes renters without any access to solar, batteries, or timed electric hot water.
But don’t expect miracles. Reductions in average generation costs will be minor compared to total electricity bills, and the main benefit — reduced need for grid upgrades — will be gradual in effect. But it will lower costs, which is infinitely better than raising them, and will also benefit the environment as it increases the rate we switch away from fossil fuels. This includes oil, as the Solar Sharer Offer will allow many EV owners to drive for free.
For more detail on the Solar Saver plan, read our explainer on how it will work. For another perspective, read SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock on his concern that the scheme will slow down solar uptake.
About Ronald Brakels
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Yes the duck curve has been or is Australia’s biggest problem and batteries and 3 free hours electricity and shifting hot water times will surely help the duck curve, still say a higher fit in peak hours would also be good !!
The other day, it clicked to me that batteries still aren’t worth installing if making money is the point.
We installed a 10 kW SUNGROW modular system at about $11,000 installed.
Today, with the rebate, it could be down to around $7000.
Then it came to me: the cheapest EV in Australia is the BYD ALTO 1. On the road, I think it would cost around $25,000.
It has a 30 kW battery. Divide that by three and you get $8,340 per 10 kW.
Now, are we allowed to set up our house to plug in our car and use its battery?
It would make sense that when you get home, you use the car’s battery and then programme it to be charged overnight on the cheap tariff.
Surely this idea offers a much cleaner install and wouldn’t be difficult to do.
Why buy batteries and a car when you can get both for the same price in the one package?
Yes buy the big battery on wheels and get the car for free !!
That’s all very well, if the car is nailed to the garage floor, so it can power the house, else sit there charging up again, never providing transport.
OK, you could buy two, to make that plan work in reality, but just charging the ATTO 1 (or my MG4, $33k) for free saves around $3,000 p.a. in fuel bills + ~ $500 service. That’s bigger than most electricity bills, so stuff the garage clogging idea – just drive the thing! (For novelty’s sake) It pays better. And EVs drive better. Well the MG4 does. (Try one, and you’ll see.)
Mine has charged for free off the roof for nearly 2 years – that’s $6k off the vehicle cost, and it wasn’t dearer than a fossil burner in the first place.
It’d take a DC bidirectional BEV charger to deliver substantial power levels from an ATTO 1 or MG4, so still more expensive than a rebated dedicated house battery, I suspect.
Yes you’re right doesn’t suit everyone but if like me a pensioner at home most the day and only drive sometimes with a garage and solar and gunna buy a car anyway its ideal, don’t have to buy a battery !!
Another great example Peter of “horses for courses”. Wonder how many other pensioners have worked out what you’ve worked out. Quite a demographic if educated or marketed correctly to.
It’s not a simple either/or.
The possibility of V2H means you could make do with a smaller/cheaper fixed battery to cover most periods when the car is not present.
I see a few potential (but not insurmountable) issues with this:
1 – your EV isn’t always at home to run the home when it might be needed
2 – incentivising EV brands to support V2G (or V2H) and/or changing the way they do warranties – at the moment car warranties are typically distance based – if you could buy an EV and just leave it parked at home as a defacto home battery – what’s stopping you in 10 years time going to the manufacturer and doing a warranty claim on it – “I’ve only driven 1000kms and the battery has lost 50% of capacity, I want a new one”
No new car warranty is distance only. All new car warranties are distance and time based, eg “5 yrs / 100,000 kms” whichever comes first. Battery warranties will be based on one charge/discharge cycle per day. So a battery will have a “10 yrs / 3650 cycles” warranty. So what’s to stop you trying a sneaky warranty claim – the warranty itself. Don’t worry, they have thought of that.
That comparison only works if you use inexplicably expensive home batteries as the cost comparison. Quality home batteries are available for $1670 per 10kWh fully installed, which beats the pants off any V2G setup where the bidirectional charger to enable V2G costs more by itself than 42kWh of installed home battery.
Then, the battery is always there for the household to use unlike the EV battery and takes the wear of household use instead of the EV battery.
Yep, agree with all of that.
When it comes right down to it they are just changing the settings for the default offer, not all plans, and it gives those without the ability to install solar the ability to install a battery and use it, or just time shift what ever they can.
Even thinking about pensioners 0 they can get some respite on stinking hot summer days and run an air conditioner in the hottest part of the day instead of having to soak in a cold bath are going to benefit.
I agree with all that was said and congratulate the author on a well researched article that makes sense.
There are no plans for the free three hours where I live unfortunately because during long wet spells they would be useful. Except for periods of heavy weather we export power all year. In fact at this time of year with plenty of sunshine our house can be powered, our battery charging, our EV charging, and still be exporting a few kW.
Dwellings which dont have smart meters could lose if their consumption remains at peak and not in the free window. The smart meter rollout is slow. No smart meter no free power USE
Globird just yesterday released 4 free hours 10am to 2pm in SA, NSW, Vic and Qld.
So you dont need to wait plus they might be under the current DMO/VDO already
When midday wholesale prices are negative, retailers maybe actually make money giving electricity away?
well, the retailer still has to pay network fees, NEM fees, renewable energy certificate fees. In SA the network fees for residential on a meter that enables the free 3 hour period (ie a TOU interval meter) has prices during the solar sponge (a 6 hour period) at about a third of the residential flat rate. So, it depends…
The free 3-hour window will be ideal for those on electric hot water (heat pump or resistive element) to use with a timer in conjunction with an interval meter. Just remember to switch the timer to adjust for daylight saving twice a year.
Is this just another labor thought bubble to garner votes?
People are basically lazy and not smart enough or committed enough to put timer’s on the high load devices to get 3 free hours when their not home because they are at work. Say you get home at 5-6pm from work onlly to remember to hang the washing out before dinner, and leave it on the line overnight. Worse still put the clothes in the dryer(at peak charge) because you need them next day. This suits the pensioners with plenty of time during the day to load shift, but you still may have the problem of not enough sun left in the day to dry the clothes.
EV charging would be a top up if you leave the EV home and go by train or bus. But, the swings and roundabouts kick in and the retailer’s will hike the supply charge and power rates! By the way what happened to Victoria they are not mentioned? Why does it take to 2026 to implement? It gives these idiot’s enough time to check the water temperature and bail if needed.
Brian – I think you underestimate the desire of people to save money on a now quite expensive cost such as electricity. Also many modern appliances commonly found in people’s homes have a timer built in such as dishwashers, driers, aircons, slow/pressure cookers, ovens etc whereby they can set them to come on during that free period. As more renewables come into the market other electricity deals may emerge for that period too.
For some time I have shifted my energy use quite a bit to when I have excess solar – it isn’t hard – but I don’t worry all that much as I hardly pay for electricity now as I have a sizeable array and will buy a battery next year.
Brian, I’m assuming you are in Vic, We weren’t included as we use our own coal and so are not included, much like Tassie their mostly Hydro so no invite ether.
Victoria has its own Default Market Offer, so the federal one does not apply. Free Three plans are available already in Victoria, but retailers are not obliged to offer one.
There’ll be plenty of non-idiots using it, which as Ronald said will drive down pressure on peak generation times, and thus drive prices down for everybody.
I can’t believe public debate is now at the point where we have to actually debate whether free electricity is a good thing.
Nick,
There are signs that the energy transition to minimise the civilisational crash is widely resented by masses of slow learners who:
o Find changing old habits to be traumatic.
o Find learning new stuff to be a real pain.
o Feel a loss of control in the face of externally caused change.
o Rebel emotionally against “being told what to do, dammit.”
o Need to deny the looming catastrophe, to avoid blind panic and dread.
It takes courage and energy to just get on with adapting, improving resilience, and learning how best to weather what’s coming now, even if ten times what we’re doing is not enough to undo the thermal inertia we’ve pumped into the system for decades, and we still have the pedal to the metal.
An electrical equipment repair technician told me yesterday “The government’s blowing up coal power stations!” as he declaimed our need for them. Many of my rural neighbours still drool over diesel, and run from scary BEVs. It’s all too new – too different from last century.
Indeed, this is how all major change plays out. Generally you will never manage or persuade the rusted-on to shift, they have to be forced to, either by the new alternative being astronomically better, or by the total withdrawal of their existing option.
I’ve lived in the shadow of 2 major coal-fired power stations for nearly 30 years. Can’t wait for them to go.
” “The government’s blowing up coal power stations!”
Really? That idiot Tehan wants to “Sweat the Power Stations” and obviously your Sparkie has never heard of Super Heater Steam.
I suspect that there’s only so much Maintenance they can do to a Power Station and beyond that Chemistry and Physics of the situation takes over as Pipes etc., rupture under enormous pressure
That’s what drives the Generators, pressurised Steam at 200 – 300+ C (called Super Heated Steam) and when that goes off it expands the volume of water being vapourised some 1,600 times in volume, violently.
https://www.steamengine.com.au/stuff/safety/medina-a-lesson-for-us-all
Super heated steam accidents Googles, shows a few Steam Train Engines after shots.
When a boiler tube blows out, you hear it.
Have you ever tried to get parts for a 50 year old car. Similar experience, replacement parts are difficult to come by. So big $ to replace and re engineer.
The temperature of the superheated steam at the Loy Yang Power Station is 540 °C. This steam is generated at a pressure of 16 MPa and is used to drive the turbines.
Hi David,
As I understand it, the newer steam engines run even higher pressures in a quest for greater efficiency, but it makes them less reliable too.
The scare campaign around this is hilarious to watch.
Several retailers already have this option and I really don’t see it benefitting those with a decent solar array. Unless they have an EV or two.
We already have ‘off peak’ water heating. Moving the times for that should have been done years ago.
I only have two concerns. The start date and that the supply should be interruptible.
I have a near-12kW array, and have benefited immensely from OVO’s 3 free hours in winter, where there’s very often days where I’d otherwise not generate enough to power both the house and charge the home battery.
I wonder if this also means electricity companies also get away with not paying for solar power for the electricity they export during these periods?
Indeed, I just went to check out the globird 4hr offer, and it’s pretty ordinary (here in SA at least) . . . it pays 3c FIT, and for just 4 hrs of the day.
That’s between 1700 – 2100 and will suit mostly peak summer for a couple of hours, or battery owners dumping some kwh to the grid (but hardly worth it).
Supply charge is 40c more a day than I pay with AGL.
iO Energy has a much better plan for most SA solar and battery owners, giving 8c power for 6hrs a day 1000 – 1600, and 30c FIT for 3hrs between 1800 – 2100.
This free for free stuff in solar soak will suit renters, retirees, generally without solar, IF they can use power like crazy in the 3hr or 4hr block per day, then sit around using as little power as much as possible for the other 20hrs a day, as the rates are going to be higher for those.
Your’e spot on Ronald.
To help people use power during the free time, they need to be steered towards getting timers installed or automation like Catchpower at the time of selling them a Solar system.
I have a TOU meter and controlled load (resistive Hot Water Service), and earlier SAPN mostly moved the water heating from around 1 to 2 am (the old time slot) to numerous small burst throughout the daylight period, (with only a little in the old time slot), with the difference in the charge for daytime hot water being 6.5c /kWh cheaper ,…but more recently the times of heating have mostly moved back to night, which costs me more,…to the tune of about $150 per year.
I can well see that the retailers would prefer to charge us at the high peak rates, just by altering when the hot water service can draw electricity.
For them it is better to charge me 27.8c/kwh at night rather than nothing during the free 3 hour window.
The only way to dodge the problem is for consumers to fit a timer and run the hot water during the free window,…which amounts to a saving of $800 per year.
Tim, personally I feel SAPN just set you up like for like, even if you have gone solar and could do better another way other than CL for the HWS.
I too found our HWS heating went from off peak 1130 – 0530 (I think it was), onto new TOU, and to heating mostly during solar soak, with a tiny boost off peak still.
We were paying about $1.40 a day for that.
I put up with that for a year, then had the HWS put onto normal circuit, the CL meter just sits there idle now.
We fitted a timer (rather than the more costly, but more efficient Catch Power), set that to 0100 – 0500 window in our 6 hour 8c EV rate early morning, and now pay 35c – 40c for HW daily now.
If I override the timer during sunny days even in the lead up to spring / summer, it is free from solar, and cost us less than 10c a day.
In summer I will set for say 1100 – 1500 and let it just do that small boost under 10c, although sun is reliable enough, could just set for that solar soak for zero cost.
The timer cost me $380 fitted.
Good one les I got a laugh !! 😆😃👍
Your resistive will be great when you can use the 3 hour free power, I’ve had free hot water for the last 3 or 4 years with my resistive and a green catch diverter !!
3 hours of free electricity.
I have suggested to AGL they could develop an offer like their Peak Energy Rewards offer, but in Reverse, where on high generation days a SMS is sent out offering 3 hours of no charge electricity to encourage more people to utilize the excess of electricity. No change of plans, just agree to the event on that day. You have already been charged the day connection fee.
I don’t see how this reduces peak demand. People on time of use/demand billing (policy requires you have a smart meter) will have already moved any load they can outside of peak tariff/demand periods. The rest of their demand is not discretionary, shiftable load.
It further encourages batteries, which shift demand.
Alex,
There’s more than can be seen through a keyhole. Yes, those already on suitable ToU will be gratuitously rewarded for their early shift, with free electricity, but those who follow now, in pursuit of the same deal *will* shift load in response to the deal. Innit?
Some will receive a smartmeter in the process, but when I was on-grid, I had a smartmeter for a number of years, without giving any thought to faffing with a ToU tariff. Free electricity would have won me. And shifted load.
Totally agree that Three Free makes most sense for those with limited unshaded roof and a battery, but that it benefits everyone as described. My beef is with the wording.
Why is spare generation capacity now referred to as “curtailment” or “wasted energy”? Turning off generators when demand is low is the basis of system operation and has always happened. Yallourn often has some stacks with no smoke. The only thing that has changed is an increase in the types of generators available to be idled. How do we choose the order of idling? But let’s call it idle or spare capacity, not wasted energy.
David,
Perhaps it’s because free solar energy is like buffet chocolate cake – it’s a bugger when you belly’s full and you can’t fit more in. (Curtailed by your belt buckle.)
Some have written that five times renewables overcapacity is best for energy security without burning stuff, but that was before batteries.
Here, off-grid, I’ve found that 27 kW of PV and 46 kWh of batteries almost always curtail with just one occupant, even in 5 consecutive overcast days, as the big array significantly reduces the need for a big battery. Even in deep overcast, it can yield 1 to 3 kW, enough to end the day on 100% SoC, as I then defer BEV charging. But when there’s two families in the old house, which I also supply in holiday season, it holds up, so ample capacity is good.
The sun wantonly spills as much energy into space in a second as all nations
combined consume in 650 millennia. Oh no! Oh woe! Lookit da curtailment.
Erik, I like your style confirming wasted PV energy. We have 13kw of PV and have found on the dozen most cloudy /raining/misty days per year (6 years of data), that we still harvest 0.9 kWh per kw of PV on the roof,…and it matters not which direction the panels are facing,…as long as it is generally upwards.
13 kw of PV gives us 12kwh of energy per day on the worst days ever,…and never do we get 3 such poor solar days in a row, so our average generation over 3 consecutive worst days is about 16kwh/day. Consequently we really only need a 15kwh battery (and the resistive hot water tank set to heat only after the battery is 90%) to run a full electric house using 18kwh average per day. If we had an additional 4kw of PV we would not need to buy any electricity in June as now occurs, but as we are on grid the cost of the additional PV for 130kwh of energy required over the June period does not justify the expense of more PV.
It would be a good outcome if a lot of existing consumption can be shifted to the midday hours. Is there any modelling to support this as achievable policy?
It would also be a good outcome if new demand could be limited to the midday hours.
There are two sides to consider, supply and demand. At the moment the policy appears to only look at the supply side with a “thoughts and prayers” consideration of the demand side.
I would dearly like to see sociological modelling that shows this policy will significantly change the profile of consumer demand.
WA not included – again!
1. Remember, when you refer to WA, that we have two separate grids – Horizon, and the SWIS grid, which operate independently of each other.
2. Whilst it is not free, we do have the Time of Use facility, where, between 0900 and 1500, the cost of grid electricity is substantially reduced – “Super Off Peak Charge” of 7.8cents (plus GST) per kWh – and, I have my inverter configured to charge the BESS (to make up the shortfall, if one exists), between 1200 and 1500, so ensuring that the BESS is fully charged as at 1500, each day, at minimal cost, and, ensuring that the BESS supplies the power (after the sun goes down) during the Peak Period.
So, we may not (yet) have the free power provision, but, making use of the Time Of Use charging, with a BESS, is beneficial.
Agreed Bret, I use TOU enthusiastically. I time everything around the 1200-1500 slot – electric hot water, use of appliances, battery charge if required etc etc. We pay more for the privilege in terms of daily supply costs but it is well worth it. With this new system installed in jan, we have seen an extraordinary turnaround in power costs.
At the moment, I am not sure it really makes “the federal battery rebate and the Solar Saver Offer complementary schemes”. It definitely could if non-solar homes could get subsidised batteries; but they can’t. And it possibly could on a solar + battery home, but only if the numbers added up to take the offer up; but, again, I don’t think they can. Either: a) the occasional savings in the free window aren’t enough, such as they would be in a fully importing home, to make up for however costs are recouped with increased peak rates and/or standing charges; or b) you aren’t already better off on a wholesale tariff like Amber where you will pay a little more than free for daytime imports but more than make up for that with evening exports from the battery.
Maybe when battery-only makes economic sense it would work, but by that time, a set three hour window sounds like too blunt a tool to do the duck-squishing as effectively as it could otherwise be done.
Unshaded roofs sound fantastic but did you stop and think the following? A tree shading a roof can take ten degrees off the heat in the house, thus, do you need the air conditioner? If it is a deciduous tree, you will get the winter sun to warm the house. Many newer suburbs have no trees. Of course, trees do take years to grow. Having said that, I have heard people say, in established houses, “ Let’s take the tree down to give more sun on the roof”. Der, der, der.
Maureem, an unshaded roof does have huge benefits for the amount of electricity that can be generated for the lowering of bills, and the free use for extra heating or cooling the house during the day, with the added benefit that those same panels shade the house roof (tropical roof effectively) and achieve many times the benefit of the tree alone. Trees are great too, so just plant some shade for the western wall, and ensure they don’t get too tall.
Having nearby trees higher than your roof is a very bad idea because sooner or later during a wild storm or similar event that tree or parts of it will fall onto or through your roof.
Pluses and minuses, like most things. Shading is good for temperature control of the building. Trees cool the city during hot weather. Trees act as carbon sinks. On the other hand they limit solar, especially when the sun is low in winter, and can pose some danger, minimised by regular monitoring, pruning, cabling etc. We haven’t lost any roof in 53 years. We love our trees.
Could this open the door for battery only systems? Or does that already exist?
The more I consider solar, the more I learn that my house is not optimal for solar generation. But if I can install a battery that force charges during the free hours, I can then use that stored energy in peak times. Reducing power costs, and reducing strain on the grid during peak.
A 30kw battery with a 10kw inverter would comfortably supply a medium usage family’s daily consumption. No solar needed.
Surely this should be encouraged? Or is my thinking fundamentally flawed?
Hi Andrew,
The main problem is that the CHBP only applies to premises with solar.
The clever part of this scheme was that it required no new legislation which could get held up or amended.
They simply modified the existing solar STC scheme with regulation.
Sadly however that excludes a battery only solution, much that they’re technically quite possible.
Would it not be possible to install a single solar panel and then add a battery?
I beleive minimum is 3kW and yes speaking with my battery installer people are doing exactly that including putting panels on south side roofs, roofs that are too steep etc. Then just get battery to charge from grid during the day.
I would hope there has been a lot of modeling done with the 3 hour free power offer, but I struggle to see how the energy providers will be able to make this work during winter months when solar power generation can be half that in summer. If a lot of people are charging home batteries and EV’s for free in winter, that will come at a considerable cost that consumers will ultimately need to pay for.
So, during the 3 hours of free grid electricity, how do I tell my solar system to not take charge from the battery when the household load exceeds the output of the solar panels? The current priority order for supplying energy is solar panels then battery then grid. Basically, I would not want the battery discharging any power during the 3 hours but ideally the battery being charged by the grid during this period if solar is slow. I don’t see anywhere in my Sungrow App or user manual where I can set such configurations.
Anthony, well researched article! It’s positive for the discussion because you looked at it from many angles. Much better than your boss’s ramblings a few days ago 🙂 Is he already shifting his opinions in the direction of benefitting Origin o-:)
This article was written by Ronald, not Anthony – and Finn suggested Ronald write it.
Sorry, got the wrong name and can’t change it. It was a cheeky remark from my side. I love both and what they write about!
We have solar panels, battery, electric car and all electric house. I live in one of colder areas of Vic. I changed supplier to a three hour free power this winter to mostly top up car battery (which I can do as the car is mostly at home at that time) as well as top up the house battery if needed on dullest days. (We have a lot of them) The prices for supply and usage were identical as my previous supply except and I get three free hours in the middle of the day. I am ahead compared to the previous same 6 months last year. Starting from mid June to July August I paid a total of $320 and for Sept Oct and Nov I am just in credit. That is better than last year and not a lot of money to run everything in my house as well as drive about 300 ks a week.
Also my understanding is that free power will be for everyone, not just those that have solar. That makes me feel like the excess is gonna be used which is great. Not complicated – find a way to use it.